Like every September 13, Mexico celebrates what’s known as the “heroic act of Chapultepec’s childhood heroes” that took place in 1847.
As one of the greatest examples of patriotism in the country, this school-taught history chapter deals with the defense of a group of soldiers from the Military School from Fort Chapultepec against US troops who declared war on Mexico the year before. .before.
Despite their youth and apparent numerical incapacity against the invading troops, six heroes – Juan Escutia, Vicente Suárez, Fernando Montes de Oca, Francisco Márquez, Agustín Melgar and Lieutenant Juan de la Barrera – joined the Mexican soldiers and died in battle.
The most prominent and pervasive incident in Mexico recounts how Escutia, seeing that the war had already been lost, threw herself into the void wrapped in a fluttering Mexican flag in the fort to prevent the Americans from seeing it as a symbol of their victory.
American intervention ended in 1848 with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, in which Mexico lost more than half of its territory belonging to its northern neighbor.
The outcome of the conflict was traumatic for Mexicans, and probably for this reason, the achievement of the child heroes is still remembered 175 years later as a symbol of great pride and sacrifice for the country.
However, historians question several points of this history and include them as myths promoted by authorities eager to glorify Mexican nationalism at a time when the country’s national identity was still forming.
Between myth and reality
Experts consulted by the BBC’s Spanish service, BBC News Mundo, agree that child heroes were present and lost their lives in the capture of Chapultepec Castle, the headquarters of the Military College. But they point out that some episodes are difficult to verify or have been expanded to further this heroic legend.
Mexican historian Ricardo Rivas says, “The first point is actually the age of 6, which ranges from 13 to 20. I don’t know if I can fit into the category we now consider ‘children’.”
There are also those who have the idea that only six people guard the castle. However, at Chapultepec there were about 200 men, including soldiers and students, joined by more than 600 San Blas battalion members trying to stop the US advance. Most died, according to Rivas.
There were also conservative voices trying to spread myths to disparage this story, such as stating that the child heroes were punished or imprisoned at the time of the attack and therefore fought because they had no choice to leave. . Or that they are drunk.
Although they were not obliged to do so as cadets, they decided to defend the castle. Even the orders of their superiors were that the specified American troops, comprising between 5,000 and 7,000 soldiers, should withdraw when their arrival was imminent. that the battle was lost. I think this is his truly heroic act,” says Rivas.
Listen and flag
About the famous episode of Escutia, Rivas explains that it is “the greatest historically unverifiable legend, and there is no evidence of it.”
“It looks like Escutia died in battle. And this whole thing about throwing a flag and falling dead onto the side of the hill seems illogical given where the goalpost is,” he says.
Also, another questionable fact about this version is that the Mexican flag was taken by the US Army and has not been returned more than a century later.
Cecilia Vargas Ramírez, historian at the National Institute for Historical Studies of the Mexican Revolutions (INEHRM), points out that the practice of covering oneself with the flag to hide the flag or protect it from the enemy is actually commonplace. This war against the United States.
“The testimonies and documents we have do not show that Escutia did it, but other heroes like Santiago Xicoténcatl or Margarito Zuazo do. The first was a lieutenant colonel in the San Blas battalion and was one of the last to stand as comrades in the fortress. It was abandoned to save their lives,” explains the expert. .
However, despite being considered one of the war’s greatest heroes, Xicoténcatl doesn’t even get the same popular recognition as the group of six children.
Another forgotten hero is Miguel Miramón, whom some call the “seventh child hero” because he is one of the young students who participated in the war and managed to survive.
He is remembered in popular history, however, for joining the Conservative Army many years later, and for being shot in 1867, along with the Habsburg Emperor Maximilian, with whom he was a great ally, on the “treason” order of liberal Benito Juárez. . . .
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The success of child heroes has been officially celebrated since 1881. But their legend gained special strength in the centennial of the war, in 1947, as a result of an event that has also been questioned by experts.
That year, US President Harry Truman visited Mexico to commemorate the dead and uttered a phrase that was not well received by many Mexicans: “A century of grudge is erased with a minute of silence.”
Soon, however, public unrest calmed when news broke that six bones had been found at the foot of Chapultepec Hill and were quickly attributed to child heroes.
“This was accepted, and on my part it was absurd that Miguel Alemán (the then Mexican president) paid more attention to the facts. No expert opinion or any anthropologist joined the definition . . . nothing,” Rivas criticizes.
After this discovery, the construction of the imposing Altar à Pátria, consisting of six marble pillars and housing said remains since 1952, was ordered.
Why this legend?
Vargas Ramírez emphasizes the importance of considering the context in which this took place, in order to try to understand why some myths were included in this story.
“Child heroes reflect the opposite of desertion, representing those who were so powerful and terrible in this war and who remained committed to the cause,” says the historian.
“However, it was very difficult to dedicate the population to defending the region. So they represent exactly that aspiration in the face of the pain and trauma of Mexican society: we want to see what happens.”
This story, which, in the expert’s opinion, was “a tradition invented for political purposes as a commemoration imposed from above, a perfect story as a model of civilization,” unfolded in this scenario of military defeat.
Rivas agrees to frame this story as Mexico’s attempt to “construct a national identity”, which gained particular momentum after the Mexican Revolution.
“And child heroes fit that purpose perfectly. From there, they became one of the founding myths of Mexican nationalism that continues to be taught in schools,” he says.
When asked whether this episode should be viewed closer to historically verified reality by Mexican students, both experts advocate a more critical view.
“Rather than erasing references to this myth from our books, I think we need to explain why we built this mythology and what function it serves for Mexican history and our national conscience,” Vargas Ramírez concludes.
“This must be told from a perspective that recognizes that it is part of a State-created narrative in the face of an event as traumatic as the war against the United States,” he adds.
“Truth itself is truly fictional and heroic in itself, it doesn’t need all these additional changes. It must be taught critically and romanticism must be set aside for nationalism that has a clear purpose,” says Rivas.
source: Noticias
